Rights, poverty, equity in conservation. A presentation by Dilys Roe, IIED. This presentation was given at the Expert Workshop on Equity, Justice and Well-being in Ecosystem Governance, held at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London, March, 2015.

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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015Author name
Date
Dilys Roee
26-27 March
Dilys Roe
Rights, poverty, equity
in conservation

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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015
Protected Areas and Equity –
Where did it all come from?
• 1992 - Equity in preamble to CBD
• 2000: IUCN World Conservation Congress, Amman –
significant shift towards addressing social issues. Disquiet
about equity - and the need to address it within the CBD -
• 2002 : CBD starts to develop draft PoWPA
• 2003: World Parks Congress – raft of recommendations on
poverty, rights, governance
• 2004: POWPA adopted with new work stream on
Governance, Participation, Equity and Benefit Sharing
• 2006: PAEL
• 2010: Aichi Targets

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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015
Rights
• 1975: IUCN General Assembly: Zaire Resolution - indigenous peoples’ rights
should be taken into account in national parks and other protected areas
(Holdgate, 1999).
• 1982: Third World Parks Congress in Bali advocated the implementation of joint
management arrangements between societies that have traditionally managed
resources and protected area authorities
• 1989: “Two Agendas on Amazon Development” (COICA, 1989) emphasized need
for partnerships, alliances, co-management of protected areas
• 1990s – 2000s: increasing documentation of negative social impacts of Pas (Dan
Brockington et al)
• 2003: WPC includes major focus on indigenous rights and protected areas
governance (to annoyance of some)
• 2008: WCC Resolution 4.52 “Implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples and Resolution 4.056 on “Rights-based Approach to
Conservation,”
• 2012: WCC Adopts new Policy on Conservation and Human Rights for Sustainable
Development

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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015

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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015
Poverty• People and parks issue long recognised
• 1971 Man and Biosphere programme launched
• 1980 World Conservation Strategy
• 1985 WWF Wildlife and Human Needs
• Mid – late 80s – rise of CBNRM in Southern Africa and elsewhere
• 1992: CBD
• Late 1990s: protection vs participation debate
• Late 1990s – poverty becomes focus of development policy
• Initial backlash from conservation organisations – eg (Sanderson & Redford,
2003).
• 2000: World Conservation Congress – recommendation that “IUCN address
poverty simultaneously with environmental rehabilitation”;
• 2002 – CBD target: achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of
biodiversity loss as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life
on earth.’
• 2002 – WSSD – poverty reduction overriding priority of sustainable development

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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015
World Parks Congress 2003
Durban Accord notes “that many costs of protected
areas are born locally – particular by poor
communities – while the benefits accrue globally”
(WPC 2003: 2).
WPC Rec V.29: protected areas should strive to
contribute to poverty reduction at the local level and
at very minimum should not contribute to or
exacerbate poverty.

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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015
Poverty
2008: CBD target integrated into MDGs
2010: CBD Cop10
• Strategic plan for biodiversity mission mission to halt
the loss of biodiversity…. thereby ‘contributing to
human well-being, and poverty eradication.’
• Decision (X/VI) has a sole focus on poverty and is the
culmination of numerous previous Decisions
emphasising the need for integration of biodiversity
and poverty agendas.

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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015
Key issues associated with poverty: ABS, TK, Sustainable Use

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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015
Rights based approaches to
conservation

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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015
Pro-Poor Conservation
“A group of the world’s largest conservation and
environmental NGOs have come together to announce
tonight their commitment to integrate conservation and
development efforts. After working for decades in some
of the world’s most impoverished places, the
environmental community knows the critical need to work
for improved livelihoods, respect indigenous and
vulnerable peoples, and seek sustainable responses to
the root causes that lead jointly to poverty and ecological
disruption.”

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Dilys Roee
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Dilys Roee
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Dilys Roee
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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015
Rights – Poverty – Equity
2004: Third IUCN World Conservation Congress,
Resolution 3.015 “Conserving Nature and Reducing
Poverty by Linking Human Rights and the
Environment”. This resolution affirmed that “… social
equity cannot be achieved without the promotion,
protection and guarantee of all human rights…”

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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015
Present day – return to equity?
Aichi target 11 – protected areas should be effectively
and equitably managed
Rights based approaches – human rights and
conservation
Poverty declining on the international development
agenda?
SDGs the new framing for conservation?

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Dilys Roee
March 26-27 2015
Thank you